Green Mansions Part Deux

And from the same source, this article detailing the struggle of U2 guitarist “The Edge,” who’s attempting to build a “luxury green” community of a handful of 7,000-12,000 square foot homes in the Santa Monica Mountains, above Malibu, California.  Environmental groups, regulatory agencies, and rock stars are definitely not seeing eye-to-eye on the project.  The [...]

Home-making on the Farm

In belated honor of  J.D. Salinger,  a deceptively simple observation on homes, by Joyce Maynard: “A good home must be made, not bought.” Taken a bit out of context, this assertion is, when you think about it, pretty radical.  We buy homes, like we buy cars and home theater systems, though usually with a bigger [...]

Virginia Public Radio Airs Segment on Bundoran Farm

Virginia Public Radio recently aired a segment on Bundoran Farmand our efforts to preserve the character and use of the 2,300 acres of this legacy landscape, promote ongoing environmental stewardship and craft a great place for people to live in and enjoy the countryside of Charlottesville, Virginia and Albemarle County region.  Click here to for [...]

Climb Like Lance, No Sweat

From the “Things We Covet” file: Sanyo’s new E-Bike.  This is a standard, good-looking bicycle with a quiet 250 watt motor that kicks in on hills.  The idea’s not new, but the execution this time is good.  They’ve had practice, selling “tens of millions” of hybrid bikes in China. The Bundoran Farm team suggests that this might be [...]

Deep Background

The Piedmont Virginian is a lovely magazine focusing on history, culture and preservation of Virginia’s rural heritage.  It’s always a good read, especially when they do the occaisional feature on Bundoran Farm or someone we know in the Charlottesville area.  This winter, Thomas Randolph has begun a fascinating new feature callled Deep Background.  In each [...]

Green Tax Rundown

I’m taking some time this fall to complete my LEED-AP certification (this is the primary credential of the U.S. Green Building Council).  I was about to take the darned test a couple of days before we submitted our Preliminary Plat for Bundoran Farm, a few years back, and somehow haven’t found the time since joining [...]

Budgets and Farmland

Here at the Baldwin Center, we subscribe to several web news feeds that track studies, stories and statistics on farmland and development pressure.  The remarkable similarity of many of these stories (“Planning Commission Supports Additional Farmland Protection Measures”) illustrates how universal are the issues we’ve chosen to address with this foundation. Recently, however, as so many [...]

The Baldwin Center Revisited

The last few weeks of Baldwin Center construction were pretty hectic.  More than once, carpenter Matt Crane and I wondered if we were finishing the building, or vice versa.  Followers of our progress will note that blog entries declined precipitously in September, blog frequency being a pretty good indicator of stress.  Below are some images of the [...]

Baldwin Center – Stairway and Upper Vaulted Ceiling

Matt’s crew completed the upper vaulted ceiling–which literally takes your breath away walking up the now almost completed stairway to get there….it is beyond gorgeous and far beyond what we envisioned in the design phase almost a year ago. Everyone who stops by is in awe–it just seems to fit together–and these pictures only capture [...]

Bundoran Farm Building Boom

Bundoran Farm is a busy place these days.  Within the past 5 days, we have held Pre-Construction meetings for two new customs homes.  At Bundoran Farm, we hold on-site pre-construction meetings for a few reasons.  It’s a great opportunity to make sure all involved parties have each others contact information, have no unanswered questions and [...]